<h4>Background</h4><ul><li>This study was commissioned by the Australian Business Foundation to examine the opportunities and the threats posed by e-commerce to business capability in rural and regional Australia. The study provides a snapshot into rural Australia to determine the reality of the implications of electronic commerce for rural non-farm businesses.</li><li>The study was undertaken against the backdrop of current literature where substantial changes to businesses as a result of e-commerce technologies are predicted. The real experiences of businesses as illustrated in this study, provide a new account of the impact of e-commerce and its significance for rural Australia.</li><li>This report is a starting point that looks at the e-commerce experiences of a small number of non-farm rural businesses. The Australian Business Foundation offers it as an invitation for others to tell their stories, so we can build up a richer picture of the way e-commerce technologies are influencing business life in rural Australia.</li></ul><h4>What We Learnt</h4><h5>E-commerce technologies are changing the business realities of non-farm rural businesses, but this change is incremental rather than revolutionary.</h5><p>The predicted threats and the anticipated boon from the uptake of e-commerce technologies have been overstated for rural businesses. </p><p>Rural non-farm businesses are cautious and experimental in their approach to e-commerce technologies. These businesses are taking small steps and limited investments to learn and to test the possibilities and benefits that on-line tools can bring to their businesses.</p><p><strong>Rural businesses are enthusiastically adopting the simplest, lowest cost applications with the most immediate benefits.</strong> E-commerce technologies are providing significant cost and time savings for rural businesses in mail, banking, information retrieval, document transfer and other administrative and support functions.<br /><br />The businesses that have adopted e-commerce tools have also seen improvements in the quality and efficiency of their business processes.</p><h5>E-commerce tools allow rural businesses to change, enhance and tailor their products to better meet customer needs and to differentiate them from their competitors.</h5><p>Businesses in rural towns are using e-commerce tools to add value to their products and services. This allows them to better meet customer needs and to distinguish themselves by expanding and customising their offerings.</p><p>E-commerce technologies are allowing these businesses to strengthen business alliances and capitalise on their products through the use of: </p><ul><li> relationship marketing</li><li>on-line information and advice </li><li>databases and tracking systems </li></ul><p>For example, some firms tailor offers to customers based on their interests, provide online after-sales services or add to their product range by alliances with other firms.</p><p>For rural businesses with niche or specialist activities or with information-rich goods or services, e-commerce technologies are creating new opportunities to compete and prosper in wider markets.</p><h5>Rural businesses are experimenting with e-commerce tools to test their worth or to pre-empt potential future threats or external pressures.</h5><p>Some businesses in rural towns appear to be getting the best of both worlds with a 'clicks and mortar' business strategy. This response is designed both to forestall on-line threats and to marry local knowledge, existing customer relationships and the value of personal contact with the judicious use of on-line technologies.</p><p>The cautious approach to e-commerce technologies by some rural businesses reflects both natural reticence to the adoption of any innovation and some rural-specific factors, such as barriers to learning about e-commerce applications and the difficulties in locating business-oriented IT skills in rural areas. </p><p>For rural customers and suppliers, personal contact and the 'touch and feel' factor in their buying decisions are an important part of doing business that cannot be replaced with e-commerce tools.</p><h5>E-commerce in rural businesses is being driven by innovators, who are open to experimentation where it clearly enhances their business strategy or operations.</h5><p>Many of the e-commerce pioneers identified by this study were innovators, well disposed to using e-commerce tools. These managers were particularly entrepreneurial, with an intrinsic interest in 'learning by doing.'</p><p>Those businesses that are developing e-commerce beyond simple cost-saving applications tend to be at a critical stage or 'trigger' point in the life of their business, e.g. developing a new product or responding to government regulations. </p><p>Alternatively, these businesses can see that e-commerce readily contributes to achieving current business objectives. For them, e-commerce complements their existing business strategy and offers new opportunities to enhance and add value to the products and services on offer.</p>

2007-10-17T12:22:16+08:00

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E-Commerce and its Impacts for Rural Business

2002-11-16T00:00:00+08:00

This study was commissioned by the Australian Business Foundation to examine the opportunities and the threats posed by e-commerce to business capability in rural and regional Australia. The study provides a snapshot into rural Australia to determine the reality of the implications of electronic commerce for rural non-farm businesses.

2008-07-10T11:34:58+08:00

<h4>Key Points</h4><p>The Australian wine industry has experienced remarkable change since the mid-1980s. In the mid 1980s, Australia exported 2% of total production and was a net importer of wine. Since this time, industry performance has been spectacular. Exports now total 32% of total production (compared to 17% for the major producers, France and Italy). Australia produces only 2% of world wine, but now holds 2.4% of the world wine market by volume and 3.5% by value.</p><p>Industry collaboration has facilitated, or contributed to, the industry's general engagement with international markets and reinforced its commitment to innovation. In the process, the wine industry has transformed itself. It has ceased to be composed solely of rivalrous, competitive firms. Fierce competitive rivalry between individual producers persists. But this has been supplemented by industry collaboration around matters of shared concern. The industry has raised its level of integration and is developing into a knowledge-driven cluster.</p><p>Natural advantages still count. But humanly created advantages predominate. These have been amplified through collaborative action. A combination of collaboration and competition has replaced solely competitive relationships. This combination has been decisive in sustained success. </p><p>Specifically the study address three questions: </p><ul><li>What are the lessons for other business areas where similar international orientations need to be cultivated? </li><li>What are the lessons for other areas where the transforming application of knowledge and innovation is essential to growth and competitive success? </li><li>Can public policy contribute to these outcomes?</li></ul><p>The Australian wine industry experience demonstrates conclusively the synergies that can be gained, and the energies that can be liberated, through a combination of collaboration and competition. It illustrates the challenge in sustaining collaboration - as a complement to, and facilitator of, competitive strengths amongst producers. </p><p>This experience has important lessons for other Australian sectors - and for government. </p><ul><li>One possibility is for groups of firms to emulate the wine industry approach. Other clusters or industries could act in concert to enhance their own efforts at marketing, innovation and overall industry strategy. </li><li>Another possibility is for industry associations to act as change agents. They could help their member businesses identify the additional competitive synergies available through collaboration and put in place the mechanisms to allow firms to pursue joint endeavours and strategic alliances. </li><li>Finally, the wine industry also suggests a catalytic role for government in encouraging other sectors to collaborate, to identify new opportunities, and to enhance their own performance.</li></ul><p>Well orchestrated collaboration offers a way to create an 'export culture.' It offers a way to identify shared economic interests and to overcome otherwise prohibitive transaction costs. It shows how clusters can ground their continued growth and success on distant markets and on innovation. </p><p>The approach adopted in the wine industry suggests a pattern for other Australian sectors. It shows how static commodity or production focused businesses might be renewed - through the synergies of association that enhance the competitive power of human creativity and ambition.</p>

2007-10-17T16:08:53+08:00

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Australia's Wine Industry: Collaboration & Learning as Causes of Competitive Success

2000-05-16T12:00:00+08:00

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal">No one can deny the global competitive success of the Australian wine industry, going from net importer to renowned exporter of high quality wines in just over a decade.<span>   </span>But what are the ingredients of this success?<span>  </span>Paradoxically, the ability to build premium global brands from formerly domestic commodity products has been the result of extensive collaboration among competitors in the industry.<span>  </span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal">Through deliberate strategic planning, the industry shifted orientation towards global markets, evidenced by a large number of firms participating in export markets. <span> </span>By harnessing knowledge within the industry, firms can embrace technical innovations in production, enabling them to respond quickly to changing tastes and demands from the diverse global market.<span>  </span>While strategic collaboration has provided the framework for success, ongoing engagement as an industry of diverse competitors is required to sustain a competitive advantage.<span>  </span><span> </span></p>

2008-07-10T18:51:18+08:00